March 1-15, '18
March 14
GUN CONTROL -
STUDENT WALKOUT
Students attending at least some Waldorf schools in the USA plan to participate in today's nationwide walkout:
From The Clackamas Review [Oregon]:
Gladstone, North Clackamas students
joining national walkout
…A coordinated walkout is planned across more than 2,500 schools nationally so far, including Clackamas High School, Clackamas Middle College and Portland Waldorf School....
March 14 will mark one month since the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, that killed 14 students and three staff members ... Many others were wounded in the shooting.
Women's March Youth Empower is calling on students, teachers, school administrators, parents and allies to take part in a 17-minute walkout in honor of the 17 lives taken.
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From The Santa Fe New Mexican:
Santa Fe students prepare for
walkout over school violence
Hundreds of students at schools across Santa Fe plan to participate in a nationwide walkout Wednesday to commemorate those killed in Parkland and other recent school shootings, to protest gun violence and to call for stricter gun laws. Called the #Enough Walkout, the event has been organized by Empower, the youth branch of the Women’s March.
…The private Santa Fe Waldorf School and St. Michael’s High School are also planning walkouts.
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cut
From The Maui News [Hawaii]:
Maui students to join March 14 walkout
Maui County high school students are planning to walk out of class one month to the day after the Parkland, Fla., school shooting, as part of a nationwide demonstration against gun violence.
…“It’s an issue that obviously needs to be combatted and definitely not one that we can put aside,” Haleakala Waldorf senior Gita Tucker said. “It is a pressing issue, and we see that not a lot of legislators are doing anything to prevent it. I think it’s really important that students and young people are getting involved.”
While many schools are making special accommodations for students who walk out, Haleakala Waldorf decided Wednesday to cancel classes altogether and bring in nonviolent communication experts to talk to students.
[http://www.mauinews.com/news/local-news/2018/03/maui-students-to-join-march-14-walkout/]
March 13
ANTHROPOSOPHICAL
PLUNDERING
Today at his website La Vérité sur les écoles Steiner-Waldorf {The Truth About Steiner-Waldorf Schools}, former Waldorf student and teacher Grégoire Perra has posted an essay titled "L'Anthroposofia Come Saccheggio Cultural" {Anthroposophy as Cultural Plunder}. It is written in Italian. Here is my stab at a translation of the first few paragraphs (translated with extensive help from the Google and Microsoft translation services):
Rudolf Steiner can be described as a cultural plunderer. More exactly, he was like a robber. In fact, if one observes closely the practices of this man, one notices that the whole of his method consisted not in borrowing but rather in looting various works, doctrines, systems of thought, cosmologies, etc.
In fact, after I left Anthroposophy and continued in a more normal way my professional and cultural career as a teacher of philosophy, I realized that most of the ideas I had read in Steiner did not originate in his thought, but came from other authors, whom Anthroposophists had been careful not to mention. He had somehow plundered them, without citing his sources, without paying them homage, without rendering to Caesar what is Caesar's — instead, he gave to Steiner what does not belong to Steiner, presenting those contents as the fruit of his own genius, while it was only a matter of extensive study combined with a good memory.
"It is true that Rudolf Steiner never cites his sources!" a person close to Anthroposophy told me recently, after he began distancing himself from it. "It is absolutely abnormal behavior and is a sign of a serious problem!" he stated, with good reason....
Near the end of the essay, Perra adds this:
If such work had been done within the community of French philosophers and scholars, it certainly would have been designated inadmissable plagiarism and it would have caused a serious scandal. But among Anthroposophists, by contrast, no such reaction occurs.
Perra closes by saying that Anthroposophy does not only plunder cultural resources — it also plunders the inner resources of individual human beings who fall under its control. It takes from them their best energy and creativity, for its own benefit, while leaving them as emptied husks.
[3/13/2018 https://veritesteiner.wordpress.com/2018/03/13/3855/]
Waldorf Watch Response:
Rudolf Steiner claimed that all of his teachings were the result of his spiritual research — that is, his use of highly trained clairvoyance to study the spirit realm. He vigorously denied that he took his doctrines from anything he had read:
I had before me the results of conscious spiritual vision. They were things "seen," living in my consciousness ... As to whatever I might formerly have read...I was able to eliminate such things completely while engaged on supersensible research.
But the critics then found echoes of traditional ideas in the terms I used ... If I spoke of "lotus flowers" [i.e., spiritual organs, chakras] in the human astral body, they took it as proof that I was reproducing Indian doctrines in which this term occurs. Nay, the term "astral body" itself only showed that I had been dipping into medieval writings. And if I used the terms Angeloi, Archangeloi and so on, I was merely reviving the ideas of Christian Gnosticism. Time and again I found myself confronted with comments of this kind....
Since the Imaginations [i.e., clairvoyant images] described in this book first grew into a total picture in my mind and spirit, I have unceasingly developed the researches of conscious seership [i.e., clairvoyant investigation] into the being of individual Man, the history of Mankind, the nature and evolution of the Cosmos.
— Rudolf Steiner, 1925 Preface, OCCULT SCIENCE - AN OUTLINE (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1969), pp. 11-12.
Steiner's devout followers would argue that of course his teachings are similar to the revelations offered by other, earlier spiritual masters. Steiner and the other great visionaries were all seeing The Truth, so of course they all saw the same things, more or less. What distinguishes Steiner, they would say, is that his visions are more comprehensive and accurate than those of any of his predecessors. Steiner was the latest and the greatest of the spiritual masters. Steiner confirmed, and described with unprecedented fidelity, The Truth about "the being of individual Man, the history of Mankind, [and] the nature and evolution of the Cosmos."
Steiner's claims for himself, and the defense offered by his followers, might be persuasive if they did not hinge on clairvoyance. But they do. Steiners "conscious seership," his "supersensible research," boil down to his claimed use of clairvoyance.* And, sadly, clairvoyance is a myth. There is no such thing. [See, e.g., "Clairvoyance".] This being the case, Perra's argument gains considerable strength. If Steiner did not "see" esoteric lotus flowers, astral bodies, and so forth — if he merely scavenged these ideas from his extensive reading — then we have little reason to be impressed or convinced. And note that Steiner acknowledged that he may have done a lot of reading in occult texts ("As to whatever I might formerly have read...").
At a minimum, newcomers should realize that when they become involved in Anthroposophical institutions, such as Waldorf schools, they are entering at least the outer circles of an occult, esoteric, mystical movement. Note the title of the Steiner text I quoted above: OCCULT SCIENCE - AN OUTLINE. This is Steiner's key work, his most important book. And it is explicitly a work of occultism — that is, it purports to reveal occult or hidden spiritual "truths" (such as the occult truths about lotus flowers, astral bodies, and so forth). You may want to think twice before entering such circles.
[For a detailed introduction to OCCULT SCIENCE - AN OUTLINE, see "Everything". You may also want to investigate "Occultism".]
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Here is one of the most recent reissues of Steiner's key text:
* "Clairvoyance is the necessary pre-requisite for the discovery of a spiritual truth." — Rudolf Steiner, THEOSOPHY OF THE ROSICRUCIAN (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1966), lecture 1, GA 99.
— R.R.
March 12
CONTINENTS, PLANETS,
AND RACES
Rudolf Steiner,
ROSICRUCIAN ESOTERICISM
(Anthroposophic Press, 1978).
The "Book of the Week" currently featured at The Rudolf Steiner Archive & e.Lib. is a collection of lectures by Rudolf Steiner: ROSICRUCIAN ESOTERICISM. Here is the beginning of the description given at the Archive:
These lectures present an overview of the western Rosicrucian esoteric knowledge elaborating on the nature of the human being; the physical world as an expression of spiritual forces and Beings; the stages of earth evolution in Lemuria, Atlantis, and after Atlantis; and the human being's experience after death.
[downloaded 3/12/2018 http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA109/English/AP1978/RosEso_index.html Also see http://www.rsarchive.org/Basics/Arenson50.php]
Waldorf Watch Response:
Rudolf Steiner taught that Rosicrucianism is the proper spiritual path for modern humanity. By this, he meant Rosicrucianism as redefined by himself. His Rosicrucianism is essentially Anthroposophy's twin. [See “Rosy Cross”.]
Here is a sample of Steiner's "Rosicrucian" teachings as found in ROSICRUCIAN ESOTERICISM. This is an excerpt from lecture 8, "Stages in the Evolution of our Earth -
Lemurian, Atlantean, Post-Atlantean Epochs." Steiner tells of the activities of Lucifer's minions ("luciferic beings"), the destruction of the lost continent of Lemuria, our emigration to Atlantis, the return of human souls from various planets ("Jupiter, Mars, and so on"), and other marvels. Some fundamental Anthroposophical teachings about race are also touched upon:
Through the wickedness of masses of human beings and the fact that man succumbed too completely to the influence of the luciferic beings and lent himself to evil, the forces of fire in Lemuria were kindled. Thus, Lemuria perished as the result of the raging fires and the wickedness of a large section of its population. The human beings who were saved went to the West, to a continent lying between the present Africa, Europe and America, namely, Atlantis. There the evolution of humanity continued for long, long ages. The number of human beings gradually increased and the souls who had gone to Jupiter, Mars, and so on, during the period of desolation, came down to this continent. The process lasted for a long time. It was thus that the concept of race developed in ancient Atlantis. In occultism it is said that there were human beings in Atlantis whose bodies were inhabited by souls who had previously been on Mars, Jupiter, Venus, and so on. They were called Mars men, Jupiter men, for example. The external forms of the bodies differed for this reason. During the whole first half of Atlantis the texture of the human body was much softer, much more flexible, and yielded to the forces of the soul. These soul forces were essentially more powerful than they are today, and they both shaped and overpowered the physical body. A man of ancient Atlantis would have been able to break a railroad track, let us say, with ease, not because his physical forces were strong, for his bony system had still not developed, but through his magical, psychic forces. A cannon ball, for example, could have been repulsed by this psychic force. The density of flesh developed only later. A similar phenomenon is still to be found today in certain lunatics who on account of the liberation of strong psychic forces — in that condition the physical body is not properly connected with the higher bodies — can lift and throw heavy objects.
Because in Atlantis man's physical body was still pliable, he could more easily adjust himself to processes in the life of soul; the physical stature could be made to decrease or increase in size. If, for example, a man in Atlantis was, let us say, stupid or sensual, he fell into matter, as it were, and became a giant in stature. The more intelligent human beings developed a delicate constitution and were smaller in stature; those who were dull-witted were giants. Man's external form was far, far more strongly influenced by the forces of soul than is the case today when substance has become rigid. The bodies of men developed in accordance with the qualities of soul, and this accounted for the great differences in the races.
When myths and legends have described the dwarfs as being clever and the giants as dull-witted, we recognize once again the reflection of a profound, occult trend. When a soul came down again to the earth from Mars, the qualities with which it had been connected there continued for a long time to influence it and the body it inhabited. This fact explains the differences in races and racial characteristics.
[ROSICRUCIAN ESOTERICISM, lecture 8 - http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA109/English/AP1978/19090610p01.html]
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We should be grateful to the Steiner Archive & eLib. for making such materials freely available. Anthroposophists have more typically kept things like this out of public view. Perhaps they've been shrewd to do so.
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P.S. Note that ROSICRUCIAN ESOTERICISM has also been published under other titles and in different translations. See, e.g., THEOSOPHY OF THE ROSICRUCIAN (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1954) and ROSICRUCIAN WISDOM (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2000).
In the past, such publications circulated almost exclusively within cloistered Anthroposophical circles. Nowadays, the Internet and web-based outfits like the Steiner Archive have pulled away the veil from those circles, at least a little, for good or for ill. Anthroposophists today — including many Waldorf teachers — are still evasive and secretive in many of their dealings with outsiders. But their public lives have become more complicated, for good or for ill, in this time of digital information-sharing.
— R.R.
March 10
CRISIS AT UK STEINER SCHOOL
- CONTINUED
From Hemel Today, The Hemel Gazette [Bletchley, UK]:
Headteacher to leave crisis school Rudolf Steiner -
handing in his notice after just four months
by Ben Raza
Tim Byford took up the role at Rudolf Steiner School, in Kings Langley, in September.
His arrival was part of a radical overhaul, after the government threatened to shut down the school permanently.
The school is still appealing against that threat, and if it does not succeed the school could close down after April.
Mr Byford was unanavailable for comment, but a school spokesman said: “The current post holder was hired as interim principal...."
The Gazette understands that Mr Byford handed in his notice in January.
When the school announced his original appointment to the press there was no indication that he was being appointed on an interim basis, while parents have told The Gazette that they expected him to be in the role for at least 12-18 months....
The problems at Rudolf Steiner School date back to March 2016, when the School Inspection Service made an emergency inspection following complaints from a number of parents.
They then made a second emergency inspection three months later, and after a further complaint Ofsted was parachuted in by the Department for Education that November.
It is unusual for any private school to be visited by Ofsted, but when they did they branded the school ‘Inadequate’, and said it had ‘serious weaknesses’.
By March 2017 the crisis had worsened, and the school received a letter from the government telling them they could admit no more students until further notice.
This put the school in danger of closing....
in June Ofsted published its report following the inspection, and accused Rudolf Steiner of “misrepresenting” its failings to parents....
The school responded with a radical overhaul of its entire governance, which included appointing its first-ever headteacher and an all-new council of trustees.
Ofsted are understood to have inspected the school again last week.
[downloaded 3/10/2018 https://www.hemeltoday.co.uk/news/headteacher-to-leave-crisis-school-rudolf-steiner-handing-in-his-notice-after-just-four-months-1-8407126 This story originally appeared on March 8, 2018.]
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For previous coverage of the crisis at the Rudolf Steiner School Kings Langley, see, e.g., "Safeguarding Fears Mount Over Controversial Steiner Schools" [September 16, 2017], "Kings Langley Rudolf Steiner School On Reforming Path to Avoid Closure" [October 24, 2017], and "A Waldorf Opening, A Waldorf Challenge" [February 2, 2018]. For coverage of a related situation, see "Another Steiner School Charged re Child Safety" [January 9, 2018].
— R.R.
March 10
SPRING, AND THE SUN GOD,
AT WALDORF
Waldorf schools worldwide are generally preparing, now, for their annual spring festivals. Waldorf schools typically hold festivals celebrating each season of the year in its turn. At one level, these festivals are reenactments or revivals of ancient seasonal festivities. At another level — deeply connected to the first — they are religious observances.
Here is how Waldorf teacher Henk van Oort describes Easter in his disappointingly brief, but still informative, guide to the Anthroposophical worldview:
"Easter — festival related to springtime...when new life and growth appear in nature ... Anthroposophy also draws attention to the Resurrection of Christ in the ether body of the earth. The resurrected etheric Christ nurtures this resurgence of life, and can be experienced by those who develop their perceptions in a special way ... In the rhythm of the four seasons, spring is most suitable for celebrating this festival because it takes place when the planet is most receptive to Christ's life-giving forces." — Henk van Oort, ANTHROPOSOPHY A-Z (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2011), p. 35.
As you may infer from this, an Easter observance at a Waldorf school is likely to be rather different from what you will find elsewhere. The Easter Bunny and Easter-egg hunts may be absent or downplayed, and even the apparently Christian elements may have a strange cast.
Van Oort tells us of the "etheric Christ." Who or what is this? To understand, you need to know that the Christ revered in Waldorf schools and other Anthroposophical institutions is not the Son of God as he is usually described in Christian churches. No, the Christ of Anthroposophy is a different being: He is the god who has ruled the Sun. He is, in brief, the Sun God — the same god worshipped under a plethora of strange names by many ancient peoples. Here is a statement offered by Anthroposophist Margaret Jonas:
“The rituals through which one can contact gods and goddesses of old offer a deep sense of satisfaction. However, times have changed, spiritual beings evolve also and are known by other names. Christ, the Sun God, who was known by earlier peoples under such names as Ahura Mazda, Hu or Balder, has now united himself with the earth and its future evolution.” — Margaret Jonas, Introduction to RUDOLF STEINER SPEAKS TO THE BRITISH (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1998), p. 5.
Anthroposophists believe that the Sun God has descended to Earth on various occasions. Once, he came down and performed the activities attributed to Christ in the New Testament. After his Crucifixion, he arose from death and returned to his home in the Sun. But recently, he came down to Earth again, in a manner of speaking. As van Oort says, Christ came down to the "ether body of the earth" — he descended into the supernatural region that, Anthroposophists believe, surrounds and infuses the physical Earth. This descent was Christ's "Second Coming." Mainstream Christians anticipate the Second Coming as a future event, but Anthroposophists believe this event — as redefined by Rudolf Steiner — has already occurred. The Sun God dwells now in the etheric body of the Earth, according to Anthroposophical teachings. [For more on these and related matters, see "Christ Events", "Sun God", and "Was He Christian?"]
A spring festival or an Easter celebration at a Waldorf school is, at its most fundamental level, one of the Anthroposophical "rituals through which one can contact gods and goddesses of old," as Jonas puts it. Specifically, it is a ritual through which we can contact "the resurrected etheric Christ," as van Oort puts it.
If you attend a Waldorf spring festival, will you find any of these Anthroposophical beliefs openly professed? Probably not. Anthropophists think they possess secret spiritual wisdom that must be concealed from the uninitiated. To know or see what Anthroposophis think they know and see, you must have a special power of perception. You must become clairvoyant. This is what van Oort means when he says "The resurrected etheric Christ...can be experienced by those who develop their perceptions in a special way." The special way is the clairvoyant way. Belief in clairvoyance underlies almost everything in the Anthroposophical community, including Waldorf schools. [See "Clairvoyance", "Inside Scoop", and "The Waldorf Teacher's Consciousness".]
Much will probably be hidden from you, therefore, if you attend a Waldorf spring festival. But the occult doctrines we are discussing here are the sorts of things that lie below the surface of vernal observances in a Waldorf school. The main question is not whether you might discern these things on first acquaintance, but what effects these things may have on Waldorf students. Much will be hidden from the kids, too. But when the kids are led through a long sequence of Anthroposophical religious observances, season after season, year after year, the effects on them should gradually accumulate. The effects should produce a subtle conditioning process, a quiet form of indoctrination leading susceptible children toward the mysterious, mystical Anthroposophical vision. [See, e.g., "Indoctrination".]
"Festivals — like towers in a landscape, the annual festivals mark important moments in the calendar as observed in fields of work inspired by anthroposophy ... [The festivals] reflect cyclical spiritual events ... Celebrating the festivals enables human beings to get in touch with both nature and spirit ... [Festivals] offer an opportunity for us to develop greater awareness of the course and aim of human life on earth." — Henk van Oort, ANTHROPOSOPHY A-Z, pp. 45-46.
Anthroposophists think that understanding the meaning of life ("the course and aim of human life") comes down to understanding or at least embracing Anthroposophy. (The roots of the odd word "Anthroposophy" are the Greek terms for human — Anthropo — wisdom — sophy.) The festivals represent one way Waldorf schools try to shepherd the people in their orbit toward the "wisdom" of the occult belief system known as Anthroposophy.
— R.R.
March 7
WALDORF, DR. KING,
AND STEINER
From The Bonner Country Daily Bee [Idaho, USA]:
SANDPOINT WALDORF STUDENTS
TAKE PART IN DAY OF SERVICE
The legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. encompassed service, leadership, love and elevating one’s fellows. Recently, students at Sandpoint Waldorf School followed in the footsteps of Dr. King, walking in his footsteps for a day by giving back to the community.
Some children engaged with seniors and at [sic] the Sandpoint Senior Center, where they sang and entertained the guests. Others performed more physical projects like clearing snow from driveways, and some visited the Panhandle Animal Shelter to help homeless animals....
[downloaded 3/7/2018 http://www.bonnercountydailybee.com/lifestyles/20180306/sandpoint_waldorf_students_take_part_in_day_of_service The story originally appeared on March 6.]
Waldorf Watch Response:
Teaching students to be good citizens is meritorious. Doing this in the name of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is doubly so.
Dr. King was, of course, a champion of racial equality and justice. When a school honors Dr. King, it associates itself with the values he represented so nobly.
Waldorf schools face a problem on questions of race. Rudolf Steiner's teachings contain a deep strain of racism. Steiner taught that some races are higher than others. Further, he taught that an important part of human development entails rising, during the course of reincarnation, from incarnation in low (black) racial forms to incarnation in high (white) racial forms. [See "Steiner's Racism".]
Presumably, few if any of Steiner's followers today are racists in the old-fashioned sense. Few if any hate members of "lower" races. Few if any consider dark-skinned humans to be fundamentally inferior.
Yet Steiner's racial teachings remain embedded in Anthroposophy — they have not been roundly, uniformly rejected by Anthroposophists. Thus, for instance, Anthroposophists still generally accept the proposition that gods two levels higher than humanity (Spirits of Fire) oversee human groupings such as families, nations, and races. According to this belief, one Spirit of Fire oversees one human race, while another Spirit of Fire oversees the another human race. This means, among other things, that the various races of mankind have different attendant gods. [See "Embedded Racism".]
Steiner taught that human races have different capabilities and different modes of living; we actually use different parts of our brains. Here is a copy of a sketch Steiner made. I have translated the terms he inscribed on the sketch from German to English.
[Rudolf Steiner, VOM LEBEN DES MENSCHEN UND DER ERDE
(Dornach: Rudolf Steiner Verlag, 1993), p. 51.
Copied and translated by Roger Rawlings.]
Black people, Steiner said, lead impulsive lives. They primarily use their "hindbrains." If they move from the place where they belong (Africa), they turn copper red and tend to die out.
Yellow people, Steiner said, lead emotional lives. They primarily use their "middlebrains." If they move from the place where they belong (Asia), they turn brown and tend to die out.
White people, Steiner said, lead thinking lives. They primarily use their "forebrains." They live mainly in Europe, but they can safely go almost anywhere they choose.
To reiterate: We should assume that few if any of Steiner's followers today are racists, at least as the term "racist" is usually understood. But in following Steiner, Anthroposophists shoulder a heavy burden. They must struggle with the legacy of racism that Steiner bequeathed them.
It is within this context that Waldorf schools today often make vigorous — and, we must hope, sincere — efforts to affirm human equality. It is within this context that Waldorf schools do such things as creating service days dedicated to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The question that persists is whether Anthroposophists today still affirm, in any way, the sorts of racist teachings Steiner promulgated. Declaring Steiner to be wrong about an important issue, such as race, is extremely difficult for his followers. It would open the possibility that Steiner may also have been wrong about other important matters, and for them this is almost unthinkable.
[For more about Anthroposophical racism, see "Races", "Differences", and "Forbidden".]
— R.R.
March 6
WALDORF, KARMA,
AND WHAT KIDS DESERVE
The quotation for today (Match 6, 2018) posted on The great [sic] Rudolf Steiner Quotes Site:
KARMA
In fact the law of karma is the most consoling law there is. Just as it is true that nothing exists without a cause, so it is equally true that nothing existing remains without its effects. I may be born in poverty and misery; my abilities may be very limited; yet whatever I do must produce its effect, and whatever I accomplish now, by way of industry or moral activity, will certainly have its effect in later lives. If it depresses me to think that I have deserved my present destiny, it may equally cheer me to know that I can frame my future destiny myself.
Anyone who really takes this law into his thinking and feeling will soon realise what a sense of power and of security he has gained. We do not have to understand the law in all its details; that becomes possible only at the higher stages of clairvoyant knowledge. Much more important is it that we should look at the world in the light of this law and live in accordance with it. If we do this conscientiously over a period of years, the law will of its own accord become part of our feelings. We verify the truth of the law by applying it.
Source: Rudolf Steiner – GA 95 – At the Gates of Spiritual Science – Lecture VI,– Stuttgart, 27th August 1906
Translated by E. H. Goddard & Charles Davy
[3/6/2018 https://rudolfsteinerquotes.wordpress.com/2018/03/06/karma-5/]
Waldorf Watch Response:
Is the law of karma consoling? This is debatable. The essence of the law karma is that you deserve your destiny. If you are born impoverished, or suffering from a severe disease, or tormented in any other way — well, this is what you deserve. In your past lives (the law of karma is connected to the law of reincarnation), you behaved in such a way that you now deserve to be terribly poor, or terribly sick, or tormented in some other way. It is good for you. You need this, so that you may straighten yourself out and proceed to a better fate in a future life.
Are you consoled?
Steiner once consoled his followers with the following remarks. A child of one of the followers had been crushed to death in a grisly accident. Materialistic people, relying of mere earthly logic, might see this as a tragic, random, senseless occurrence, Steiner said. But "spiritual scientists" — that is, Anthroposophists — know better. They know that the event occurred for a very good reason. The child's karma required the accident to occur. Indeed, the child's own ego had "ordered" the accident to occur:
"In the autumn we experienced the death of a member's child, a child seven years of age. The death of this child occurred in a strange way. He was a good boy, mentally very much alive already within the limits set for a seven-year-old; a good, well-behaved and mentally active child. He came to die because he happened to be on the very spot where a furniture van overturned, crushing the boy so that he died of suffocation. This was a spot where probably no van went past before nor will go past again, but one did pass [at] just that moment. It is also possible to show in an outer way that all kinds of circumstances caused the child to be in that place at the time the van overturned, circumstances considered chance if the materialistic view is taken ... Studying the case in the light of spiritual science [i.e., Anthroposophy] and of karma it will be seen to demonstrate very clearly that external logic, quite properly used in external life, proves flimsy in this case and does not apply ... [T]he karma of this child was such that the ego, to put it bluntly, had ordered the van and the van overturned to fulfil the child's karma." — Rudolf Steiner, THE DESTINIES OF INDIVIDUALS AND OF NATIONS (SteinerBooks, 1987), pp. 125-126.
Are you consoled?
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Another point needs to be examined. The work of Waldorf teachers is guided, in almost all ways, by the doctrines of Anthroposophy. These doctrines include belief in karma and reincarnation.
Here is an example, which harkens back to our previous discussion about children's temperaments. [See the item for March 4, below.] Steiner told Waldorf teachers to consider the temperaments of their students, and this means considering the kids' karmas:
"[C]hildish temperament is actually connected with karma ... [I]n the child's temperament something really appears that could be described as the consequence of experiences in previous lives on Earth ... We must not view karma from a moral but from a causal perspective ... Temperament is connected, to a remarkable degree, with the whole life and soul of a person's previous incarnation." — Rudolf Steiner, DISCUSSIONS WITH TEACHERS (Anthroposophic Press, 1997), pp. 60-61.
Understand what we are seeing, here. Prior to the opening of the first Waldorf school, Rudolf Steiner met with the first group of Waldorf teachers, preparing them for their duties. This preparation included discussion of karma and reincarnation — not as abstract concepts, not as ideas found in faraway faiths, but as practical realities for the teachers to recognize as they began their work, there and then, in contemporary Europe, in the Waldorf School.
You see, Waldorf schools and Waldorf classes are themselves the result of karma. Waldorf teachers are fated to teach in Waldorf schools. Specifically, they are fated to take responsibility for certain groups of children. They had disliked these kids in previous incarnations, so now they need to compensate by becoming attentive teachers for these same kids:
"The fact that you are present to teach these children...indicates that this group of teachers and this group of children belong together in terms of karma. You become the appropriate teacher for these children because in previous times [i.e., previous lives] you developed aversion toward them. Now you free yourself from these aversions by educating their thinking." — Rudolf Steiner, PRACTICAL ADVICE TO TEACHERS (Anthroposophic Press, 2000), p. 29.
Discussions of this kind (spiritual science, karma, reincarnation, the four temperaments) are unlikely to occur in any other kind of schools except Waldorf schools. But in Waldorf schools, such discussions are common. This is how many, if not all, Waldorf teachers really think. Really.
You should understand this well, and weigh it carefully, before deciding to send a child to a Waldorf school.
[For more on Waldorf beliefs about karma and reincarnation, see "Karma" and "Reincarnation".]
— R.R.
March 4
WALDORF AND THE
"FOUR TEMPERAMENTS"
Waldorf education is built on Rudolf Steiner's mystical belief system, Anthroposophy. Waldorf pedagogy is a "practical" application of Anthroposophical concepts.
Proponents of Waldorf education often describe it as a forward-thinking form of alternative education. But in fact Waldorf is often extraordinarily backward. Consider the matter of the "four temperaments," for example.
According to the ancient Greek physician Galen, there are four primary bodily fluids or "humours": blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile. Depending on which fluid is predominant in a person's body, s/he has one of four "temperaments": sanguine, phlegmatic, melancholic, or choleric.
This may have been highly advanced thinking two thousand years ago, but it is hardly at the forefront of modern medical or educational knowledge. Indeed, modern science rejected Galen's faulty, simplistic paradigm long ago. Yet Waldorf schools today still base many of their practices on belief in the four temperaments.
Here are excerpts from a Steiner lecture featured today (March 4, 2018) at the Rudolf Steiner Archive & e.Lib. In this lecture, Steiner offers guidance for the education of children embodying the four temperaments:
“[A]s a rule, there is one thing we can always stimulate the sanguine child's interest in. However flighty the child might be, we can always stimulate his interest in a particular personality. If we ourselves are that personality, or if we bring the child together with someone who is, the child cannot but develop an interest ... More than children of any other temperament, the sanguine needs someone to admire. Admiration is here a kind of magic word, and we must do everything we can to awaken it.
“...The choleric child is also susceptible of being led in a special way. The key to his education is respect and esteem for a natural authority. Instead of winning affection by means of personal qualities, as one does with the sanguine child, one should see to it that the child's belief in his teacher's ability remains unshaken ... Any showing of incompetence should be avoided. The child must persist in the belief that his teacher is competent, or all authority will be lost. The magic potion for the choleric child is respect and esteem for a person's worth ... Outwardly, the choleric child must be confronted with challenging situations. He must encounter resistance and difficulty, lest his life become too easy.
“The melancholic child is not easy to lead … [T]he important thing for the melancholic is for his teachers to be people who have in a certain sense been tried by life, who act and speak on the basis of past trials … Let your treatment of all of life's little details be an occasion for the child to appreciate what you have suffered … We should expose the [melancholic] child to legitimate external pain and suffering, so that he learns there are things other than himself that can engage his capacity for experiencing pain. This is the essential thing. We should not try to divert or amuse the melancholic.…
“The phlegmatic child should not be allowed to grow up alone. Although naturally all children should have play-mates, for phlegmatics it is especially important that they have them … We should bring into the phlegmatic's environment objects and events toward which ‘phlegm’ is an appropriate reaction. Impassivity must be directed toward the right objects, objects toward which one may be phlegmatic.
“From the examples of these pedagogical principles, we see how spiritual science [i.e., Anthroposophy] can address practical problems.”
— Rudolf Steiner, "The Four Temperaments", GA 57 [http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/Dates/19090304p01.html]
o
The Waldorf belief in the four temperaments amounts to the stereotyping of children, and this is done on the basis of a fallacious, ancient medical theory. Worse, students in Waldorf schools are often segregated on this basis: seated in different parts of the room, given different work assignments, and so on. Moreover, hurtfully, the temperaments are associated with body types.
“The melancholic children are as a rule tall and slender; the sanguine are the most normal; those with more protruding shoulders are the phlegmatic children; and those with a short stout build so that the head almost sinks down into the body are choleric.” — Rudolf Steiner, DISCUSSIONS WITH TEACHERS (Anthroposophic Press, 1997), p. 34.
[For more on the four temperaments as conceived in Waldorf education, see "Humouresque" and "Temperaments".]
— R.R.
March 3
◊ READINGS ◊
ANTHROPOSOPHY
AND MICHAEL
From an Anthroposophical book put out fairly recently by Temple Lodge Publishing:
◊ “What lies spiritually and cosmically at the foundation of a community like the Anthroposophical Society? In wrestling with this question, I have come to the inner conviction that it is justified to speak of the Anthroposophical Society as a Michael community [i.e., a community centered on the archangel Michael].” — Anthroposophist Paul Mackay, THE ANTHROPOSOPHICAL SOCIETY AS A MICHAELIC COMMUNITY (Temple Lodge, 2013), pp. 1-2.
◊ “[T]he spiritualization the Anthroposophical Society has striven for…requires us to become increasingly conscious of the spiritual and cosmic basis for a community like the Anthroposophical Society. It then becomes possible for the individual to find his place in the Society with this consciousness. Thus Rudolf Steiner begins to speak about the karma of the Anthroposophical Society, quite a complicated one as a general karma arising through the karmic confluence of many individual human beings.” — p. 17.
◊ “[A] power began to radiate from Michael…in 1879 [CE], one that can restore order to the karma of those who have stayed with him … [L]light will pour over humanity through the Michael stream and Michael deeds if the Michael thought becomes fully alive in at least 4 times 12 human beings. Here the number 4 can be connected with the four great cosmic directions … The number 12 invokes Rudolf Steiner’s reference to the twelve members of King Arthur’s Round Table … Here one can get a sense for Rudolf Steiner’s intimation that when cosmic intelligence has become our own intelligence it can work between people so that it becomes cosmic intelligence once again, but now permeated by the human being. Then ‘we’ can become participants in helping bring about what anthroposophy is meant to accomplish for earthly development in a Michaelic way … In this way we work at restoring the truth of karma.” — pp. 31-33.
Waldorf Watch Commentary:
Anthroposophical texts are often hard to read. They tend to be couched in a dense, incantatory jargon that, for most readers, obscures meaning rather than conveying it. For this reason, when I quote from these texts, I often try to make the authors’ meaning clearer than the authors themselves did. Sometimes this leads me to insert little clarifying phrases within brackets, and often it leads me to chop out extraneous verbiage, chops that I indicate with ellipses (…).
Now, whenever I leave out words, you need to be cautious. Omitting words means changing the meaning of a sentence, if only slightly. I may assure you that I proceed with great care, aiming to help you see clearly what the authors meant. But, of course, you shouldn’t place blind faith in me. You should check up on me, as often as you can. This is why I always tell you the source of the quotations I use, so that you can consult the original texts to make sure I haven’t cheated.
(I haven’t cheated. The real meaning of Anthroposophical texts is the strongest possible argument against Anthroposophy. I want all of us to see exactly what Anthroposophists say and believe. So I don’t cheat. But you can’t be sure of this unless you check up on me. So, please, check.)
The problem with quotations is larger than this, however. Even when words are not chopped from a quotation, a solitary quote standing by itself may be misleading. Normally, every sentence occurs within the context of other sentences, just as every paragraph occurs within the context of other paragraphs, and every chapter occurs within the context of other chapters. When we omit context, meanings can be misconstrued.
Once again, the only real option for determining whether a quotation means what it seems to mean is to consult the original text. So, once again, I urge you to check as often as you can.
The real meaning of Anthroposophical texts is the strongest possible argument against Anthroposophy. If we understand the doctrines of Anthroposophy, our understanding should lead us to repudiate Anthroposophy. So I urge you to check up on me, and I urge you to read as many Anthroposophical texts as you can bear to read. You may just find that really understanding Anthroposophy will inoculate you against any urge to embrace Anthroposophy.
— R.R.
o
For more about the archangel Michael, see “Michael”. Concerning the ties between Michael and Anthroposophy, see the entry for “School of Michael” in The Brief Waldorf / Steiner Encyclopedia; for information about the year 1879, see the entry for "1879". For more about karma, see “Karma”. For more about Anthroposophical numerology (“4 times 12 ... [T]he number 4 can be connected ... The number 12 invokes..."), see “Magic Numbers”. For more about King Arthur, see "Pagan". To read some Anthroposophical texts in full, with no excisions, see, e.g., “Lecture” and “Forbidden”.
THE ANTHROPOSOPHICAL SOCIETY AS A MICHAEL COMMUNITY deals with a meditation offered by Rudolf Steiner when the foundation stone for the Anthroposophical headquarters was set in the ground — the Foundation Stone Meditation. Author Paul Mackay devotes much of his attention to Steiner’s use of the word “we” in this meditation. In my excerpts, I did not emphasize this subject because dealing with it adequately would require quoting far more of the book. But here is how the editors of Temple Lodge Publishing describe the matter:
“How can one understand Rudolf Steiner's use of the word ‘we’ in the last part of the Foundation Stone Meditation (‘What we found from our hearts and direct from our heads with focused will’)? What characterizes this ‘we’?
“In the first part of this original and inspiring work, Paul Mackay takes this question as a point of departure, developing a unique approach to working with the seven rhythms of the Meditation. Based on personal experiences, he comes to the conclusion that the rhythms are an expression of the members of the human constitution, with the ‘we’ in the fifth rhythm having the quality of ‘Spirit-self’. The second part of the book considers the same ‘we’ from a karmic perspective, with reference to Rudolf Steiner's karma lectures, events in the fourth and ninth centuries, the mystery of death and evil, and the restoration of karmic truth.”
This description appears on the back cover of the book and also at the Temple Lodge website: http://www.templelodge.com/pages/viewbook.php?isbn_in=9781906999544.
March 2
WALDORF, NATURE,
AND IMAGINATION
From The Garden City News [New York State, USA]:
“Caring for the Earth” conference at Waldorf School
The Winkler Center for Adult Learning will proudly present its annual conference, Caring for the Earth, with a keynote talk, “Cultivating the Roots of Stewardship,” by Dr. Craig Holdrege, on Saturday, March 24th. The conference will take place at Waldorf School of Garden City....
The keynote speech will address parents’ and teachers’ current and burning questions, such as, “What can I do to make a difference?” This year’s topic follows several Winkler Center conferences on sustainability: Children and Nature, and Farming and Gardening.
This is the ninth “Power of Imagination Conference” sponsored by the Winkler Center with each one attracting a larger audience every year....
[3/2/2018 https://www.gcnews.com/articles/caring-for-the-earth-conference-at-waldorf-school/]
Waldorf Watch Response:
Very little can be more important than caring for the Earth and its environment. Waldorf schools embrace green values; this is one of their more commendable features.
But as with everything else concerning Waldorf schools, you need to look below the Waldorf surface. Waldorf environmentalism is an extension of Waldorf mysticism.
According to the Waldorf worldview, nature is the abode of invisible "nature spirits," otherwise known as elemental beings or fairies. To see them, you need to be clairvoyant.
"Even today in remote districts...there are people with so-called second sight who are familiar with the nature spirits ... Although there may be fairies or nature spirits [known by] a variety of names, the usual classification is to consider four types, corresponding to the four elements — earth, water, air and fire. The names of the spirits are gnomes, undines, sylphs and salamanders. To be aware of them, the special faculty of spiritual vision is necessary; otherwise we must accept the information given to us by one who has this faculty." — Waldorf teacher Roy Wilkinson, THE SPIRITUAL BASIS OF STEINER EDUCATION (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1996), pp. 89-90.
Belief in nature spirits is difficult if not impossible to justify. So is belief in clairvoyance. Yet belief in clairvoyance is fundamental to the Waldorf worldview. The word "imagination" is usually used in Waldorf circles as an indicator for clairvoyance.
"Higher thinking is...clairvoyant thinking ... Such thinking is imaginative thinking, which proceeds wordlessly.” — Anthroposophist Georg Kühlewind, WORKING WITH ANTHROPOSOPHY (Anthroposophic Press, 1992), p. 36.
If you yourself are not clairvoyant (and of course you aren't — no one is), you will need to "accept the information given to us by one who has this faculty." This is how Waldorf teachers operate, according to Rudolf Steiner. Some Waldorf teachers believe they are clairvoyant; others turn to them for their clairvoyant wisdom:
"[N]ot every teacher in the Waldorf school has developed sufficient clairvoyant powers to see things with inward eyes ... Not every Waldorf teacher has the gift of clairvoyance, but every one of them has accepted wholeheartedly and with full understanding the results of spiritual-scientific [i.e., clairvoyant] investigation concerning the human being. And each Waldorf teacher applies this knowledge with heart and soul...."— Waldorf founder Rudolf Steiner, WALDORF EDUCATION AND ANTHROPOSOPHY, Vol. 2 (Anthroposophic Press, 1995), p. 224.
You should certainly attend the ninth "Power of Imagination Conference," if you are so inclined. But keep your mysticism detector set to high.
[For more about nature spirits, see "Neutered Nature" and "Gnomes". For more about the Anthroposophical take on clairvoyance, see "Clairvoyance" and "The Waldorf Teachers' Consciousness".]
o
Full disclosure: Long ago, I was a student at the Waldorf School of Garden City. In those days, the school was known as the Waldorf School of Adelphi University. The name changed after the school's mystical nature became publicly known, creating a scandal reported in The New York Times and other newspapers. [See "The Waldorf Scandal".] Dr. Franz Winkler — for whom the Winkler Center is named — was an Anthroposophical physician to whom my parents sent me for my annual checkups. [Concerning Anthroposophical medicine, see "Steiner's Quackery".] Dr. Winkler's views are suggested by his booklet, "Our Obligation to Rudolf Steiner in the Spirit of Easter" (Whittier Books, 1955).
— R.R.
March 1
WALDORF, LIFE,
AND DEATH
From The Suncoast Waldorf School and The Waldorf School Association of Florida, Inc. [Florida, USA]:
14th Annual Florida Anthroposophy/Waldorf Ed. Conference
CROSSING THRESHOLDS IN LIFE AND DEATH
With Lisa Romero
All changes in consciousness require a threshold experience. Our understanding and preparation for
encountering these thresholds is essential for meaningful and unencumbered transition from where
we are to where we are going. Reaching new states of consciousness requires a simultaneous letting
go and stepping forward. Knowing how we can prepare for this supports the soul's journey in trusting
the unknown.
...Please Join Us!
March 2-4, 2018
Waldorf Watch Response:
Events such as the 14th Annual Florida Anthroposophy/Waldorf Education Conference open instructive windows into the Waldorf movement. Let's consider a few things we can see through the window provided by the announcement above.
1) Notice that the upcoming conference deals with both Anthroposophy and Waldorf education. Although the connection is often disguised or denied, Anthroposophy (the religion devised by Rudolf Steiner) is in fact fundamental to Waldorf education. As one Waldorf teacher has written, "Waldorf education is a form of practical anthroposophy." — Keith Francis, THE EDUCATION OF A WALDORF TEACHER (iUniverse, 2004), p. xii. Another Waldorf teacher has written, "Waldorf teachers must be anthroposophists first and teachers second." — Gilbert Childs, STEINER EDUCATION IN THEORY AND PRACTICE (Floris Books, 1991), p. 166.
In practice, Waldorf schools often have difficulty finding enough Anthroposophists to fill all their teaching positions, so they often hire non-Anthroposophists to teach at least some subjects. But the goal is to tie Waldorf very, very tightly to Anthroposophy. As the founder of Waldorf education said, "Anthroposophy will be in the school when it is objectively justified, that is, when it is called for by the material itself.” — Rudolf Steiner, FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER (Anthroposophic Press, 1998), p. 495. Since Anthroposophists believe that their doctrines are the great, universal Truth underlying all other knowledge, they think that the presence of Anthroposophy is “justified” at virtually every point in every subject studied in a Waldorf school. True-believing Waldorf teachers may soft-peddle their Anthroposophical beliefs in class, but they feel justified in insinuating these beliefs into almost all subjects. [See "Sneaking It In".]
2) The central narrative of Anthroposophy is, in bare outlines, this: Right-minded humans are evolving to higher and higher stages of spiritual consciousness. Human beings began their evolution in an ancient cosmic period called Old Saturn, when the solar system was essentially an undifferentiated mass of warmth, we existed at the level of minerals, and human consciousness was similar to being in a coma. Mentored to by numerous cooperating deities, we then evolved to a cosmic period called Old Sun, when the solar system reincarnated in a form of spiritual air, we rose to the level of plants (we were "plant men" then), and our consciousness was equivalent to deep sleep. Following that, we evolved to Old Moon, when the solar system reincarnated in a form of spiritualized water, the Sun separated from the rest of the system, we became lunar animal men, and our consciousness rose to the level of dreaming. We exist now in the period called Present Earth: Here, in a solar system of distinctly differentiated planets, we have become densely physical (material, earthy) beings, and we are largely blind to spiritual realities because our consciousness is ordinary, sense-based, waking consciousness. In the future, we will evolve to Future Jupiter, when our consciousness will be clairvoyant imagination and we will become gods; then Future Venus, when our consciousness will be clairvoyant inspiration and we will become higher gods; and then Future Vulcan, when our consciousness will be clairvoyant intuition and our spiritual preeminence will truly surpass understanding.
This narrative is hard for outsiders to accept, but Steiner's followers insist it is an accurate account of our lives and the meaning of our lives. Thus, one admirer of Steiner has laid out this narrative and then added the following: “I wouldn’t be surprised if the last few pages have taxed some readers’ capacity for giving Steiner the benefit of the doubt and left them wondering who could possibly believe this science fiction story. Yet this cosmic history is the backbone of Steiner’s work.” — Gary Lachman, RUDOLF STEINER (Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin, 2007), p. 147. Note that final phrase. This narrative is "the backbone of Steiner's work." Everything arising from Steiner's work, including Waldorf education, harkens back to this "science fiction story." [See "Sci Fi".]
Portion of a chart showing the outline of human/cosmic evolution
as described by Rudolf Steiner.
[See THE TEMPLE LEGEND (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1985), p. 385.]
I have skimmed over the surface of Amthroposophical beliefs about these periods.
For more information, see, e.g.,"Manifestations" and "Matters of Form".
3) Humans who progress from one level of consciousness to another pass various thresholds along the way. Cosmological thresholds are found between the "planetary conditions" we have outlined (Old Saturn, Old Sun, etc.). But we confront other, personal thresholds throughout our lives and also during our deaths. Steiner taught that we reincarnate: We live many, many lives, creating and discharging our karmas along the way. And between our lives on the physical plane of existence, we dwell in the spirit realm. There, during death, we confront two mighty beings, the Guardians of the Threshold. In order to proceed into the spirit realm, we must satisfy these celestial gatekeepers. [See "Guardians".]
Anthroposophical beliefs of this sort impinge on Waldorf education in numerous ways. Here are just a few:
◊ Waldorf education is meant to shepherd students into their new incarnations on Earth. “[Waldorf] education is essentially grounded on the recognition of the child as a spiritual being, with a varying number of incarnations behind him, who is returning at birth into the physical world.” — Anthroposophist Stewart C. Easton, MAN AND WORLD IN THE LIGHT OF ANTHROPOSOPHY (Anthroposophic Press, 1989), pp. 388-389.
◊ Specifically, this means Waldorf education is meant to help students fulfill their karmas. “[T]he purpose of [Waldorf] education is to help the individual fulfill his karma.” — Waldorf teacher Roy Wilkinson, THE SPIRITUAL BASIS OF STEINER EDUCATION (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1996), p. 52.
◊ Therefore, Waldorf education is not designed to teach students much. Instead, it is meant to help the kids develop spiritual energy or life force. “The success of Waldorf Education...can be measured in the life force attained. Not acquisition of knowledge and qualifications, but the life force is the ultimate goal of this school.” — Anthroposophist Peter Selg, THE ESSENCE OF WALDORF EDUCATION (SteinerBooks, 2010)‚ p. 30. With sufficient life force, a student can pass through the various thresholds s/he will encounter during life and also during death.
o
There's more we could say, but this may be enough for now. Having read this brief commentary, you might go back and reread the announcement concerning the 14th Annual Florida Anthroposophy/Waldorf Education Conference. Many of the phrases used in the announcement may take on new, more informative meaning for you now: phrases such as "crossing thresholds in life and death," "changes in consciousness," "transition from where we are to where we are goin," "the soul's journey," and so on.
The speakers at the upcoming conference may or may not openly discuss the sorts of Anthroposophical beliefs we have glimpsed here. Anthroposophists think they possess occult spiritual wisdom that must be guarded from the uninitiated. You may attend numerous Anthroposophical events, and perhaps spend years associated with a Waldorf school, without being told many Anthroposophical "truths." The process of gaining admission to the inner circles of Anthroposophy can be long and slow; becoming "initiated" may take a long time. [See, e.g., "Inside Scoop".]
Students at Waldorf schools are almost never taught Anthroposophical doctrines — such as the central narrative of planetary conditions — in an open, explicit fashion. But these beliefs will be woven into the fabric of school life. Graduates of Waldorf schools, especially the children who have been at Waldorf for many years, will almost always come away having internalized a deep emotional/psychological disposition inclined toward Anthroposophy. These children will have been, to one degree or another, conditioned to move along the path leading to Anthroposophy and Rudolf Steiner. [See "Indoctrination" and "Waldorf's Spiritual Agenda".]
Waldorf education — a form of practical Anthroposophy, as it were — is radically different from what you will find in virtually any other type of school. The question for you is what to make of this radical difference.
— R.R.